Community Board 5 Chair Battle Ends in Ouster for Lavingia

The members of Community Board five divided down the middle as they ousted a housing lobbyist from the chair but elected two other supporters of his pro-development group, Open New York, to executive posts.

On a 24 to 20 vote the board elected as its new chair Bradley Sherburne, an architect, replacing Samir Lavingia, who became interim chair just three months ago amidst an angry outcry that his group, Open New York, where he serves as campaign coordinator, had been trying to “infiltrate” CB5 and other community boards.

“I think we can all agree that this year has been a challenging one for our board,” Sherburne said just before the vote. “And that many join me as seeing this as a turning point for our board...I think I can help end the division that has distracted our board and put all the controversy of the recent months to rest so we can get back to work for our community.”

Sherburne and Lavingia had announced just before the vote that they had committed to each other, regardless of who won, “to being a fair and neutral chair for the whole board, not just for those who voted for us.”

After the vote Lavingia called on the entire board to congratulate Sherburne.

“I’m confident the choppy seas are behind us,” Lavingia said.

Not everyone was as certain. “The Board is still very much divided,” observed one member, Charles Ny, who stressed he was speaking for himself.

Indeed, the narrow vote for chair was not the only signal of differing views. Three of the six board members elected to the executive committee voted for Lavingia as chair. Two of those, Ankur Dalal and Yaran Noti-Victor, are affiliated with Open New York.

The third, Tristan Hass, said he was not affiliated with Open New York, but admired how Lavingia had handled himself under difficult circumstances the last three months.

“That said, I am very excited to work with Brad, the other newly elected members of Exec, and all the other members of the Board –regardless of who they voted for – to turn the chapter on the hysteria of these past few months,” Hass said.

The struggles at CB5 have been closely watched. Community Board members are volunteers appointed by the Borough President to weigh local issues and make recommendations. Their thumb on the scale can have particular weight with local elected officials and city agencies, an important influence when the mayor and the borough president are trying to spur more housing construction.

CB5 draws particular attention because its territory covers the heart of central Manhattan, running south from Central Park as far as 14th street, from Eighth avenue to Lexington. Several of the city’s largest development challenges fall under its watch, including the future of Penn Station and its neighborhood.

Several present and former board members said they believed Open New York was trying to gain control of the board to push its decisions in favor of development. Open New York, founded with funding from tech billionaire Dustin Moskovitz, is registered to lobby in Albany on behalf of pro housing and pro-development issues.

It is considered a part of the larger YIMBY (Yes, In My Backyard) movement that seeks to lift restrictive zoning and exclusionary development restrictions.

At the board’s last meeting, Borough President Mark Levine, a strong proponent of more housing construction, lectured the board members to get past their infighting and back to work on crucial issues, including the consideration of Mayor Adams “City of Yes” plan to expand housing development.

The voting was heavily invfluenced by Levine’s actions, appointing 11 new members to the board and, at the same time, removing two members who had been frontrunners for the chair and vice chair positions.

Sherburne strepped in to run for chair after Levine declined to reappoint Craig Slutzkin, a move Levine suggested was because Slutzkin, on anoth4er board, had favored a resolution questioning the city schools system’s decision to let transgender girls compete on girls sports teams.

But some members of CB5 thought he was improperly meddling in the election to tilt the vote to Lavingia.

Sherburne pledged that as the new chair he would broaden the bodies executive committee and open committee assignments to reflect “the diverse perspectives of the board.”

For his part, Lavingia, who is 29 and a former software engineer at Twitter and Google, seemed to take his defeat in stride. “While it may have been short lived, I’m honored that I was able to steward @ManhattanCB5 during these last few months as chair,” he posted on X. “We got a lot done in spite of the choppy waters and I’m excited to go back to being a regular member where I can fight for homes, tenants, and transit!”

Lavingia rejected the suggestion that the overall outcome of the board voting showed Open New York had achieved a strong foothold on the board:

“The positions of the board have always and will always be independent of any outside associations. We are all here as individuals to represent the community. Since moving to New York, I’ve been fighting for additional housing and affordable housing, against traffic violence, and in favor of public transportation and am excited to get back to that.”